The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United States.[2][3][4][5] The school dates back to 1854 when its predecessor institutions, the University of the City of New York[6] School of Civil Engineering and Architecture and the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute, were founded.[7] The school was renamed in 2015 in honor of NYU Trustees Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon following their donation of $100 million to the school.[8]

History

Polytechnic Institute at 99 Livingston

Founding institutions

Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute

On May 17, 1853, a group of Brooklyn businessmen wrote a charter to establish a school for young men. Named Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute, the school moved into its first home at 99 Livingston Street in Brooklyn. The first class, admitted in 1855, consisted of 265 young men ages nine to 17. The school conferred its first bachelor's degrees in 1871. Graduate programs began in 1901 and the school awarded its first doctoral degree in 1921.[10] From 1889 to 1973 the school became known as Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. In 1917, the preparatory program separated from the Institute and became the Polytechnic Preparatory Country Day School. Poly Prep is now located in the Dyker Heights section of Brooklyn. Polytechnic Institute moved to its present location in 1957, the former site of the American Safety Razor Company factory, where it became a co-educational institution.

School of Civil Engineering and Architecture

In 1854, the University of the City of New York, now New York University, founded the School of Civil Engineering and Architecture at a time when specialized schools of engineering were uncommon in America.[11] Classes began in 1855 and the school awarded its first undergraduate degree in 1857. As the industrial revolution took shape, the school formalized its engineering curriculum and the school's first dean, Charles H. Snow, changed the name of the school to the School of Applied Science. During this time the engineering school officially separated from the university's arts and science school then called University College. In 1894 the University of the City of New York moved its engineering school to a new campus in the Bronx.[12] The new campus gave the university space to build larger science laboratories that could not be constructed at its Washington Square site.[13] With the addition of the new campus, under the leadership of Chancellor Henry Mitchell MacCracken, the University of the City of New York renamed itself New York University. The neighborhood surrounding the Bronx campus eventually became known as University Heights. By 1920 separate electrical and chemical engineering departments were created and the school changed its name to the College of Engineering.

Expansion, financial difficulties and acquisition

Enrollment at New York University expanded considerably from the early 1900s into the postwar decades. However, by the early 1970s this growth ceased due to rising crime and financial troubles in New York City. New York University faced financial hardships leading it to sell its University Heights campus that housed its engineering school to City University of New York, which in turn renamed the campus Bronx Community College. Also during that period from 1969 to 1975, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn was forced to rely on subsidies provided by New York state to keep the school afloat. The state supported Polytechnic on the basis that closing the school would create economic hardship locally.[9] With both Polytechnic Institute and New York University facing financial difficulties, the state brokered a merger of New York University's engineering school with Polytechnic Institute. Polytechnic Institute acquired the faculty, programs and students of New York University's engineering school to form Polytechnic Institute of New York.[9] Polytechnic Institute of New York gained university status in 1985 and changed its name to Polytechnic University.

Wunsch Hall, the oldest building on campus, stands in contrast to the more modern buildings of MetroTech Center, including the adjacent Dibner Library

Distinction through technology

By 1986 Polytechnic University in Brooklyn was the largest technological university in the New York metropolitan area and the second-largest in graduate enrollment in the nation after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Of the 300 engineering schools in the United States, Polytechnic had the second-largest graduate enrollment and was among the most successful institutions in the country as a producer of science and engineering graduates who went on to doctoral studies. An average of 7.2 percent of Polytechnic graduates went on to achieve a Ph.D., compared with two other schools with large engineering programs: Carnegie Mellon, with an average of 6 percent, and Princeton, with 4.5 percent.[9] Polytechnic University became well known for its research centers in electrophysics and polymer blends.

Present

Discussions about a merger with Polytechnic University and New York University began in 2004. Four years later Polytechnic University and New York University agreed to take steps towards a merger beginning with a formal affiliation between the two schools. This affiliation resulted in the school changing its name to Polytechnic Institute of New York University.[15] The schools officially merged in 2014 when the New York State Regents approved the change of charter making NYU the sole member of Polytechnic University.[16][17] Since the merger applications to the school and incoming SAT scores have increased substantially. The school has also experienced an influx of students coming from outside of New York state. Fundraising and faculty research awards have increased since the merger.[15] The school also opened a bioengineering facility in partnership with the medical and dental schools.[18]

A gift of $100 million from Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon in 2015 resulted in the school changing its name to the Tandon School of Engineering. New York University has committed to investing over $500 million to its engineering school in the coming years.[19]

Fundraising

The school has had several fundraising campaigns over the years. From 2001-2005 the school raised more than $275 million.[20] Alumnus Joseph J. Jacobs, who founded Jacobs Engineering Group, one of the largest engineering and construction companies in the world, gave the school more than $30 million over the course of his life.[21]

Name

Polytechnic Institute Electrostatic Laboratory 1903–1904

The school started from two origins and has carried a number of different names:

1854: Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute; University of the City of New York School of Civil Engineering and Architecture (founding names, separate institutions)

Manhattan sites

Biomatrix Research Center

The Bioengineering Institute research facility is located at 433 First Avenue in Manhattan.[24] The School of Engineering and Colleges of Nursing and Dentistry are located in the building where chemical, biomolecular engineers, as well as mechanical engineers do research in biomaterials and biotherapeutics for regenerative medicine.[18]

The engineering school also has a location in downtown Manhattan. The downtown site offers degree programs in Financial Engineering, Management of Technology, Information Management and Accelerated Management of Technology, and the Exec 21 Construction Management certificate.

Online

NYU Tandon Online is the online learning unit at NYU Tandon School of Engineering which offers 6 master’s degrees, 2 graduate certificates, and 3 certificates of completion programs fully online. Focused on peer-to-peer engagement, the unit has been recognized as providing one of the top online learning programs by U.S. News & World Report, and the Online Learning Consortium among others.

Academic profile

Rogers Hall, main academic building and Othmer dormitory building on the background

Class Profile

Tandon's incoming classes typically consist of some 700 students, with a total academic population of over 5,000. From 2007 to 2016, applications rose 103% and the average first year admitted student SAT score rose 145 points, from 1175 to 1320.[15]

Rankings

Ranked #3 by U.S. News & World Report Best Online Graduate Computer Information Technology Program in 2017[25]

Ranked #1 PayScale Best Value College in NY State (20-year ROI) in 2015[26]

Ranked #8 by U.S. News & World Report Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs in 2015[27]

Ranked #9 by The Princeton Review Top Graduate Schools for Video Game Design in 2015[28]

Ranked #16 among Financial Engineering and Mathematical Finance programs in North America in 2014[29]

Research

Starbucks cafe, right by the entrance to Rogers Hall

Some of the school's first research institutes included the Polymer Research Institute, established in 1942, and the Microwave Research Institute, established in 1945. The American Chemical Society designated the Polymer Research Institute as a National Historic Chemical Landmark on September 3, 2003.[32] The Microwave Research Institute developed electromagnetic and microwave defense and communication systems and later renamed itself the Weber Research Institute. Other notable research centers of the institute include NSF-sponsored Wireless Internet Center for Advanced Technology (WICAT), which ranked #1 among technologyresearch centers in funding and #2 in the number of industry participants according to the United States National Science Foundation,[33] Center for Advanced Technologies in Telecommunications (CATT), a New York State and NSF sponsored research center that is also affiliated with Columbia University,[34] NSF-funded Internet Security and Information Systems Lab, a U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) designated Center of Excellence in Information Assurance, Information Assurance Education and a Center of Excellence in Research,[35] and the New York State Resiliency Institute for Storms & Emergencies (NYS RISE), which is housed jointly at NYU's Brooklyn campus, and Stony Brook University.[36][37][38]

Over the years the school has been a key center of research in the development of microwave physics, radar, polymers and the space program.[9] During World War II the school's Microwave Research Institute worked on problems whose solution led to the development of radar, and later broke ground in electromagnetic theory and electronics in general. In later years the school participated in the space program, solving re-entry problems of the manned space capsules.[9]

The school has been affiliated with some major inventions and innovations including: the Panama Canal locks; lockmaking;[39] the Brooklyn Bridge cables; cable-lift elevators;[40] cordless phones; ATM machines; bar codes; laser; radar; penicillin; polymers; elevator brakes; lightweight, ultra durable automotive brake rotor;[41][42] light beer; cardiac defibrillator; artificial cardiac pacemaker; RFID; contact lenses; zoom lens; first telephone handset; commercial television;[43] non-stick coating as an application of Teflon; suspension system for the largest radio telescope; microwave technology; Apollo Lunar Module, the first, and to date only, manned spacecraft to operate exclusively in the airless vacuum of space; X-ray crystallography;[9] structure of the DNA molecule; submarine; modern refrigerator; A/C generator; electric motors; transformer;[39] submarine communications facilities;[44][45] development of the artificial sweetener aspartame; development of nontoxic processes to create food colorings and remove caffeine from coffee; the quasi-complementary (transistor) amplifier circuit; lateral transistor; the wireless microphone; as well as Eugene Kleiner’s first semiconductor (and much of the Silicon Valley), and Spencer Trask's investing and supporting of Thomas Edison's invention of the electric light bulb.[39][46][47][48][49]

CRISSP (Cyber-Security. Includes Tandon School of Engineering, Wagner Graduate School, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Stern School of Business, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development)

New York State Resiliency Institute for Storms & Emergencies (includes NYU, Stony Brook University, Columbia University, Cornell University, City University of New York and Brookhaven National Laboratory)

Torunn Atteraas Garin, oversaw the development of the artificial sweetener aspartame; developed nontoxic processes to create food colorings and remove caffeine from coffee

James Wood, fabricated the steel cables for the Brooklyn Bridge, making cable-lift elevators possible. He also contributed to the inventions of lockmaking, submarine, A/C generator, electric motors, transformer and the design of the modern refrigerator. He held 240 patents.[39]